This week at the Story Works Round Table, Alida and Kathryn talk transitions. What are the good, bad, and better ways to keep your readers reading past narrative breaks? We want to create bridges over that white space, whether it’s a scene, chapter, or part break, no matter who, when, or where shifts on the other side
Alida shares 6 personal writing tips she’s learned that will get you over the hurdles that make it hard to write your story on today’s Story Works Round Table.
How will your personal history affect how you portray death? What about if you have never experienced anything as tragic as your character is experiencing? How can you use the element of surprise to turn a story on a death? And how should you use death in Act two? We talk about the problem of proximity in death, and whether or not death has genre conventions. In the end, we all agree that this is a great book, if you are ready to really sit and think about death!
What was our experience with The Art of Death? What were our biggest takeaways? What makes death meaningful for the story? And what tools should you bring to write a death well? How can we make them authentic? And what is the power of the point of view?
How is writing a female protagonist different from writing any protagonist? Are there genre pressures to what your female protagonist should be like, act like, or look like? How has television affected character driven fiction? And how does that effect the female protagonist? Finally, we give tips on how to address the female protagonist writing for today’s reader, no matter the genre.
What makes a female protagonist a strong female protagonist? And where does that strength come from? How aware of social and cultural norms should you be when developing a strong female protagonist? And is strength unique to genre?
Do MPWW writers take emotional risks in their writing? How can we take a page from their book to form supportive writing communities? And how is the Twin Cities Community involved in supporting the program? Has the MPWW program affected the DOC? And what misconceptions does Jen encounter? And finally, we talk about how you can help support this program, and all the work that it is doing!
What is the Minnesota Prison Writing Workshop? How did it begin? And what is it like to go into a state prison (in MN) and teach writing? What genre does MPWW teach? And how does it help writers? What kind of community has grown out of MPWW’s work within the prison system?
Why did Judy start writing PI novels? And how did her background help with the details? What are some pitfalls to avoid when writing a PI novel? And why is the narrator so important? We dive into the gray zone of legality in a PI novel, as well as how to add complexity, even if your narrator doesn’t have an arc.
Should you have your theme in mind when you start the book? Is there a formula that Talia follows for her particular books? And how did her writing turn into activism? Talia’s message for all of us is to take advantage of the opportunities that you are given.
What inspires writers to create a story? How small can that spark of inspiration be? Once you have the inspiration, you must also have the courage to write that story! We talk about how to write your way through a story, with only the destination in mind. And how to correctly use creative license in historical fiction.